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Saturday, 26 March 2016

Review - 'Daredevil', S02E10 - 'The Man in the Box'

After so many genuinely tense and
exciting episodes, it feels like a bit of a shame to come to an
episode that slows things down as much as this one does –
especially with the end of the season drawing so close. Coming at
this point in the season, an episode such as this one simply feels
like too abrupt a break in the momentum that the previous episodes
have managed to build up. At the same time, though, I suppose I can
understand why it might have felt necessary – after all, with such
a rapid stream of revelations and new developments, giving the
characters (as well as the audience) a bit of breathing room to
properly process everything that has happened is actually quite
useful. Of course, that doesn't really change the fact that this is
might be one of the slowest paced episodes of the season.

Picking up shortly after the previous
episode ended, Detective Brett Mahoney (Royce Johnson), who has been
something of a reluctant ally throughout the series, finds himself
further drawn into a 'Commisioner Gordon' style role toward Daredevil
as he finds himself in the same basement that Matt discovered in the
previous episode. Heeding Matt's warnings that the Hand's victims
might still be in dangers, Mahoney agrees to have them sent to Claire
Temple (Rosario Dawson), the only person Matt is certain can be
trusted. Claire, naturally, isn't too happy to be drawn back into
Daredevil's world – though, just as naturally, she is entirely
committed to seeing that her new patients are taken care of.

Claire Temple did, of course, briefly
appear earlier in the season, but it is not until this episode that
we have any real focus on her – and, that we have any effort to
address the lingering tension between her and Matt. Rosario Dawson
seems to slip easily back into her role as the world-weary voice of
reason, here – with Claire making a very genuine (if, ultimately,
futile) effort to convince Matt not to abandon the people that he
cares about. This wouldn't be the first time that I found myself
wishing that Claire Temple could have a larger, and more important,
role to play – and, I'm sure it wont be the last.

With the Hand's victims safe (at least,
for the moment), Matt soon learns of another complication – the
apparent escape of Frank Castle. With Wilson Fisk making arrangements
to set Frank loose on Hell's Kitchen in the previous episode, it
seems as though the Punisher might be waging his one-man war, once
again – this time, it seems, targeting the one behind the sting
operation that went bad, District Attorney Samantha Reyes (Michelle
Hurd). Believing herself to be targeted, Reyes reaches out to Matt,
Foggy, and Karen – hoping that the know something which might help
located the Punisher, while also finally confessing her role in both
the sting operations and the cover-up, afterwards. Just as they seem
to be coming to some sort of agreement, though, the meeting is
attacked – Foggy is wounded, and Reyes is killed.

The most likely culprit was, of course,
Frank Castle, himself – yet, Karen wasn't convinced. Neither, I
would assume, were most of the audience. Honestly, I don't think we
were ever truly meant to assume that it was Frank Castle behind the
attack, here. The fact that we didn't actually see Frank opening
fire, at this point in the season, felt too obvious (and, also, there
were innocent people in that office when the shooter opened fire on
Reyes). So, when the Punisher did eventually make an appearance later
in the episode, just in time to save Karen from another attack, it
felt more like a confirmation of what most of the audience would have
already known.

I think that, alone with the slower
pace, my main issue with this episode was how disjointed it all
started to feel. Not only was the episode mostly taken up by long
(if, admittedly, still very compelling) conversations, but there were
also scenes inserted, here, that seemed to break the momentum of the
episode even further.

The brief, face-to-face, meeting
between Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk, for example, was a fantastic
moment for the episode – but, ultimately, the scene felt as though
it was more concerned with laying the foundation for an eventual
third season of Daredevil
than it was with pushing forward any of the current plot-lines. It
was obviously important (as well as a great moment for both Charlie
Cox and Vincent D'Onofrio) – but, it felt like a scene that could
have been left until later.

Elektra
also made a brief appearance, here – clearly set on leaving the
country, after being pushed away by Matt once more, only to find
herself under attack by an assassin who had, seemingly, been sent
after her by Stick. The action sequence that resulted from this brief
sub-plot was very entertaining, sure (and, the fact that it all
resulted in Elektra finally acquiring her signature weapons was every
bit the 'crowd-pleaser' it was clearly intended to be) – but, the
two separate scenes that made up this sub-plot still felt out of
place. Once again, it felt like a sequence that would have benefited
from being placed elsewhere.

Overall,
this was one of those episodes you sometimes get with season-long
arcs – one that was clearly intended to be more transitional, in
nature. It was the sort of episode that was more concerned with
moving characters around, and placing them where they need to be
for what is to come, rather than telling its own story. It's not
necessarily a bad thing – but, it doesn't always make for the most
compelling viewing. And, there was still plenty to enjoy about this
episode, also – so, it was far from a failure.

Still,
all of the pieces are where the show's creators want them to be, now.
Matt, Foggy, and Claire are at the hospital – which is about to be
attacked by the Hand. Karen and Frank are together – and, also
under attack. Everything is in place for the next episode to deliver
some fantastic action, as it leads us toward the season's rapidly
approaching climax.